Notes and Queries, Number 18, March 2, 1850

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Various. Notes and Queries, Number 18, March 2, 1850

NOTES

UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF HORACE WALPOLE

LADY ARABELLA STUART

THE NAME MARTEL

QUERIES AS TO JUNIUS

NEW EDITION OF REV. DR. OWEN'S WORKS

MINOR QUERIES

REPLIES

ORIGIN OF THE JEWS-HARP

ÆLFRIC'S COLLOQUY

REHETING AND REHETOURS

ARABIC NUMERALS

THE FRATERNITY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE—CHAUCER'S NIGHT CHARM

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES

MISCELLANIES

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS

Отрывок из книги

I have the pleasure of inclosing to you (I believe) an unpublished letter of Horace Walpole's. It was found among the papers of the late William Parsons, one of the Della Cruscan poets. That it is genuine I have no doubt. The handwriting is precisely similar to a note sent with a copy of the Mysterious Mother to Mr. Parsons, in which Horace Walpole writes, "he is unwilling to part with a copy without protesting against his own want of judgment in selecting so disgusting a subject; the absurdity of which he believes makes many faults of which he is sensible in the execution overlooked." It is also guaranteed by its date,—"Paris, July 28. 1771." By reference to his correspondence with Sir H. Mann (vol. ii. p. 163.), we find a letter dated July 6, 1771, in which he writes, "I am not gone; I do go to-morrow;" and in his General Correspondence, vol. v. p. 303., writing to John Chute, his letter is dated from Amiens, July 9. 1771, beginning, "I am got no farther yet;" and he returned to Arlington Street, September 6. 1771, having arrived at Paris on the 10th of July, and quitted it on the 2nd of September. I notice the dates, as they indicate the rate of travelling in some degree at that period. The Query is, to whom was it addressed? There is nothing on the original to indicate the person. The letter is of no great importance, except as it shows that Walpole, under certain conditions of being, was more earnest and sincere than perhaps was in his nature, or was generally his wont.

Athenæum, Feb. 25. 1850.

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"With regard to your letter, S'r, some parts of it are, I protest, totally unintelligible to me. Others, which I think I do understand, require a much fuller answer than I have time to give now, as the post goes out to-morrow morning. That answer will contain matter not at all fit for the Post, and which I am sure you woud not wish shoud be handled there; for which reason I shall defer it, till I can give my answer at length into your own hands. It will, I believe, surprize both you and my brother; and show how unkindly I have been treated after doing everything to accommodate both. As to the conditions which you say, S'r, you intend to exact from my brother, you will undoubtedly state them to him himself; and cannot expect I should meddle with them or be party to them. Neither you nor he can imagine that I am quite so tame an idiot as to enter into bonds for persons of his recommendation. If the office is his, he must be answerable for it, and for all the persons he employs in it. I protest against every thing that is not my own act—a consequence he perhaps did not foresee, when he chose, contrary to his agreement with me, to engross the whole disposition. I have always known clearly what is my own right and on what founded; and have acted strictly according to my right, and am ready to justify every step of my conduct. I have sufficiently shown my disposition to peace, and appeal to you yourself, S'r, and to my brother, whether either can charge me with the least encroachment beyond my right; and whether I have not acquiesced in every single step that either has desired of me. Your letter, S'r, and that you quote of my brother, have shown how necessary it is for me to take the measure I am determined to take. I would have done any thing to oblige either you or my brother, but I am not to be threatened out of my right in any shape. I know when it is proper to yield and when to take my stand. I refused to accept the place for my own life when it was offered to me: when I declined that, it is not probable that I would hold the place to the wrong of anybody else; it will and must be seen who claims any part or prerogatives of the place unjustly; my honour demands to have this ascertained, and I will add, that when I scorned a favour, I am not likely to be intimidated by a menace.

"I say all this coolly and deliberately, and my actions will be conformable. I do not forget my obligations to you, dear S'r, or to your dead brother, whose memory will ever be most dear to me. Unkind expressions shall not alter the affection I have for you and your family, nor am I so unreasonable, so unjust, or so absurd as not to approve your doing every thing you think right for your own interest and security and for those of your family. What I have to say hereafter will prove that these not only are but ever have been my sentiments. I shall then appeal to your own truth whether it is just in you to have used some expressions in your letter, but as I mean to act with the utmost circumspection and without a grain of resentment to anybody, I shall say no more till I have had full time to weigh every word I shall use, and every step I mean to take. In the meantime I am,

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